cardew the cad wrote:The stalemate has been broken with Ruislip Gazette in that an advert has been placed. Whether this leads to a thawing of their views on covering our go-ahead club we shall see.

I personally don't think the cash strapped club or its' cash strapped fans should have to pay to publicise the biggest game of the season so far in the newspaper that has been covering the club since time began. It's the paper's job to reflect what major events are happening in the area and this week's game is without doubt one of them. If you look at the most viewed newstories on the Harry O website they're nearly all WFC related so there's an appetite for news about our club greater than anything else.

I'm confused. I thought previewing games was more deemed more important than "tired old" match reports. Yet we have a decent sized report on last week's game and no preview of Lewes. Normally the Harry O is good at this sort of thing so I presume this is an oversight.

I'm pretty sure that most interested parties know we play in Ruislip now. The floating fans though may not know we have a big game in the FA Cup 3rd Qual on Saturday though and that may cost us gate-money.

I agree pretty much with what Cardew says here. The situation with the Gazette is different and we got a very good deal. However it is not simply a case of bunging in an advertisement. For a start there is almost certainly no space available on the back page of the Harry O. I would personally not support an ad anywhere other than on the back page for impact purposes

Secondly there is the little matter of cost! Should we be diverting valuable funds, supporters or the clubs for this purpose?

My view is that we have to start thinking far more about the value of web based publicity and we do quite well in that regard. Let's face it chaps, in a very few years local hard copy papers will be a rare sight, least of all paid for versions - the market is disappearing and fast. Tim is fighting the cost cutting regime as hasn't the same control as a full old style editor had (or the time)

I will speak with Howard & Co and assess where we go with the Gazette - if that space remains available. It has to be cost effective and not put there to make us feel better I guess

Cynicism and negativity is an easy and popular trait that is fed by failure. Success derives from someone, somewhere, being positive. Try it.

Sadly, the problem's not unique to the Harrow Observer - our local paper is appalling these days, with the sport section seemingly suffering death by a thousand cuts.

That would just about be tolerable if our coverage hadn't been slashed to almost non-existent for no apparent reason. A pattern seems to be emerging now where Staines get the back page lead AND the inside back cover while we get a couple of brief mentions on the same page. After we beat Badshot Lea 10-0, they managed to credit one of our goals to a player who hasn't played for us for six months! And, when we arranged a testimonial for Paul Burgess, it was all but ignored, while the back page lead was based on a thread on the Staines Forum. Abysmal.

Beano wrote:Sadly, the problem's not unique to the Harrow Observer - our local paper is appalling these days, with the sport section seemingly suffering death by a thousand cuts.

That would just about be tolerable if our coverage hadn't been slashed to almost non-existent for no apparent reason. A pattern seems to be emerging now where Staines get the back page lead AND the inside back cover while we get a couple of brief mentions on the same page. After we beat Badshot Lea 10-0, they managed to credit one of our goals to a player who hasn't played for us for six months! And, when we arranged a testimonial for Paul Burgess, it was all but ignored, while the back page lead was based on a thread on the Staines Forum. Abysmal.